Inspiration

You have to find it wherever you can. Sometimes it is difficult. At least once a week I click on the link to the Rocky Mountain News, temporarily forgetting she is no longer with us. The loss of that newspaper in particular was very difficult to stomach. The Rocky was driven by the passion for journalism, very different from the business model the Post is based on. The Rocky shutting down was a huge blow to the world of journalism around me, and the ripples of that are still being felt.

I still wander around the site some days, wishing and wanting for the content to change. Today, the photo page wouldn’t load. I’m not sure if it is my connection or that they are slowly removing content from the servers, but it hit me. One day it will all be gone. I was lucky to be published in that paper. Only once, but at least it was once. My life as a journalist revolved around someday working in that newsroom, among those journalists. When it closed I was a ship without a sail. The last day it published was the opening reception for my work at a store on Larimer, and as I sat there (alone because all of my journalist friends were at the bar getting quite thoroughly soused) I looked at my artistic prints on the walls and was forced to restructure my goals. At the time, all I knew was the pinnacle was no longer an option.

I’m still not entirely sure of my future as a photographer, though I am excited by everything I do and try. I am not the typical college graduate, having four kids and a mortgage makes me, well, not so mobile. This week I was inspired by a simple act of kindness dreamt up by my sweet friend Miss Cora Kemp. We surprised our mentor, Kenn Bisio for his birthday. You can read about it on her website. Bisio has inspired many of us, as infuriating as he can be at times, every emotion brought out makes you think and consider.

I find that providing inspiration is the best possible thing a person can do, and when I find myself lacking in inspiration, the best thing I can do is to nurture others. It seems to wake up my own creativity and bring me back to where I should be. I am in the middle of one of the most extensive and elaborate projects I have ever taken on. It’s exciting, liberating, nerve-wracking and at times creativity quashing. I have a great support system, wonderful friends and many people who keep me going every day which is so very important.

I love being able to change things through small actions. Loaning something to a fellow shooter, chasing down contacts for another, helping flesh out the crux of a story with someone else, brainstorming new ideas with yet another. I just love to be part of the process, to know that I helped with something, pushed someone, helped someone or changed their mind about something important. I was reminded of that last week and this week.

So I look forward to next week and whatever will happen next.

As for today, another picture from the ginormous project I am in the middle of.

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc

More from column Z

Working on post is the bain of my existence most days. I love being a photojournalist because post-production consists of two things: exposure and white balance. Woo Hoo.

Studio work, however, requires a bit more work. Exposure and white balance should be spot-on (since you are standing stock still in a studio under controlled circumstances) but fixing things, that which cannot be done as a photojournalist, is of the greatest importance. Fixing blemishes, cropping, using filters, selective color toning, moving stray hairs and inconveniently rumpled clothes or errant shadows. Some studio work is more fun than others, and straight portraiture (for me) makes me insane to the point I don’t want to play any more. But the romance shoot for the novel project I am working on was not just fun at the time but the post work has also been quite enjoyable (and not because he was pretty, which he was- very pretty, and he knows it) but because of the creative leeway I get for creating a character out of this model.

Derek was nearly perfect for the shoot, though he has hazel eyes and the character vibrant green, he has dark brown hair and the character nearly black, Derek is also a bit younger than the character in the book, so a little aging, as well as toning will go a long way. I have also had fun playing with liquefy, making Dereks’ expressions just a bit more dynamic and adding that little something extra.

Here is another version of the image I posted previously, with extra steps in post. Of course this is an example, not the final image. As a stand-alone the work isn’t as noticeable, but in a side-by-side comparison it is. So, leave comments! What can you see that has been altered? A prize to the person who can name it all. (But there is alot)

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc

Picking pockets

My friend Cora has a new blog to check out, so you should.

In the meantime if you see her out shooting a wedding I’ll give you $10 to pick her pocket and bring me her wallet, she needs to learn to keep that thing stowed!

© 2010 CKemp Shoot Photography

A little from column Z

Odd week of tweets requires explanation, well, no it doesn’t but here it is anyway:

I like doing different things, trying new styles, and learning as I go. So this shoot was the perfect opportunity to stretch my wings.

As for images, well, you only get one:

©Jenn LeBlanc

I love studio work. High-end lighting and sets and complete creative control; the polar opposite of photojournalism. For me it’s all about balance, a little from column A and a little from column B. This particular shoot happens to be from column Z.

The last week was spent casting, costuming, arranging, directing and finally; shooting images for a romance novel. So very far from my own comfort zone it was fantastic. I worked with a wonderful friend who was familiar with the material, Elena Brown, who served as AD and PA. I was also blessed with a great model, Derek Hutchins, who had a fabulous sense of humor and, well, he was pretty.

Fantastic.

Whenever I got lost Elena found me and together we pushed through and came away with some great images for the novel over two days of shooting. I can’t stress enough the amount of planning and prep work that goes into a major studio shoot, as well as the need for a competent assistant (who can read your mind) and clear expectations for what needs to be achieved.

We shot multiple poses for ten scenes over the two days, and only missed one image that I had bouncing around in my noggin. Overall pretty good in my book.

12:17 PM Jan 11th from twidroid: Ack! So much to do: Brandt & Whitney, Flossy McGrews, Lowe’s, Argonaut, fabric, tack and bridal shops. Can’t say my job isn’t interesting.

2:16 PM Jan 11th from twidroid: Tack shop stat!

3:54 PM Jan 11th from twidroid: No leather riding crops at the tack shop. Should have tried the XXX store.

9:16 AM Jan 12th from twidroid: Big day, part deux of the studio shoot! I guess I should get a move on.

2:55 PM Jan 12th from txt: To the studio! (say it like Batman would)

about 3 hours ago: OK, 24 hours ago I was, well, nevermind. Then I was up till 4am editing images only to get up again at 9 and get back to it. Might be done.

29 minutes ago from TweetDeck: RT @BrnWriter: @JennLeBlanc turned 4 shades of red when I told him to take off the Jockeys. Man-bits she wouldn’t be able to handle. true.

Soft

The more often I shoot something, the more abstract and unconventional I get.

©2010 Jenn LeBlanc

My bucket list

I have had a sort of list rattling around in my head forever. I added to it often, just about every month when my National Geographic Magazine would show up actually. I recently decided I needed to write down everything I wanted to shoot, and start marking them off. Since writing down the list I have marked off a couple, and added a couple more. So there is now a page on my blog dedicated to my own shooter’s bucket list.

What would your bucket list have on it?

My Bucket List

Closely

I like the abstract. I used to like highly detailed, perfectly focused, tack sharp images. Now I tend to prefer the odd, strange, unrecognizable images born from natural objects. I like to get in there, show a landscape that nobody ever thought was there. Right there, in front of you, waiting to be seen and yet ignored, unnoticed.

That is what I like.

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

Perhaps it is a revolt against the reality that is photojournalism right now. Perhaps it is the way my mind reconciles the blatant reality of my documentary images with what I see in my mind. Perhaps.

The Washington Times slashed their staff. The entire photo department is gone. GONE. What now? Not a single professional photojournalist on staff. NONE. So, amidst an industry that is bleeding profusely from the eyeballs, the biggest victims of the bloodletting my friends and colleagues, the visual journalist, I do need to get out and see. To see a different world, a different landscape. One where all this doesn’t exist.

More Wild Portraits

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

P.S. This is what happens when you put a bunch of crazy girls in front of a camera. Actually, my house looks like this just about any time.

Wild Berry

©2009 Jenn LeBlanc

More to come…

Happy Holidays!

Every year I try to take my kids to the Denver Zoo for Wild Lights.

Thing is, when I was a fine art major I did a slide show (um, old school, actual slides, title slides, programmed tape deck, Wollensak programming unit) on the Denver Zoo for a final. Got an A+. It was fun. I photographed the animals during the day and went back for wildlights, but the first night I forgot my tripod, so I winged it, and flinged it, and rolled it and painted my images with light.

I never took my tripod with me again, and those images were by far my favorite, so I go back every year conveniently forgetting my tripod.

Last year I decided to combine the fliging and winging with strobe to create portraits, of course I decided this after we arrived, so the only strobe I had was my on-camera flash. Canon has a great on-camera flash on their X0D series of cameras, works in a pinch, but it doesn’t like my lens if I am too close and that caused the shadow at the bottom of the frame.

It only means this year we go back and do it again, with my big strobe. I’ll post those later on.

This is what we got:

Lolly

@Jenn LeBlanc

Berry Lee

©Jenn LeBlanc

Kait

©Jenn LeBlanc

Giggi

©Jenn LeBlanc

As far as exposure goes, without a spot meter the best bet is to slow down the shutter as far as you can go at a high f-stop, then as soon as you pop the strobe the auto will take over and expose the flesh tones. You just have to count the exposure and be sure you are pointed at the person when the strobe fires.